Moving On

At some point in the near future, I might have to travel all the way out to Scarborough. A highly recommended RMT, who may be able to help me with a specific issue, practices out of a clinic in that area. I don’t own a car (to me, the expense isn’t worth it when you live and work in downtown-ish Toronto), so it would take me approximately 90 minutes on the TTC just to get there.

I’ve been weighing the potential benefits of seeing this RMT against the potential costs of having three, maybe even four, hours of total travel time. (My issue is not life-threatening, but spending four hours surrounded by the press of humanity, to me, is. 😀 ). I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll make an appointment to see her only if I can’t find a closer alternative; in other words, only if I absolutely have to go to Scarborough.

While thinking about this, it occurred to me that people living in Scarborough and the other “inner suburbs” of Toronto probably do the same kind of cost-benefit analysis about travelling into the city, be it for work, pleasure, service, etc. As someone who was born and raised in the ‘burbs, I get it. Suburban and metropolitan areas have very different vibes from each other. There’s a completely different ethos that is evident not only geographically, but socially and politically, too. So, I know that there’s no real reason either type of community should have anything to do with each other.

However…

My suburban upbringing has also shown me that there’s no real reason either type of community shouldn’t have anything to do with each other.

As we’re seeing with the Ford Fiasco (I’m not linking to any articles about this because this story is everywhere), when leaders come to power based on reinforcing differences, it doesn’t turn out well for any of us.* Life is not a zero-sum game and, frankly, anyone who tries to convince us otherwise doesn’t deserve our vote.

So, relatively soon, Toronto will have another election (yay!). If we really are to “move on” from all this drama, as Rob Ford keeps insisting we should, then here is the one thing we should be asking of anyone who wants to be a leader in this city:

How do you plan to bring out the best in all the people of Toronto?

That’s it. That’s all we need to know. Anything else is just gravy.

(See what I did there? 😉 )

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* Speaking of which, can we please remember that any leader who plays on our fears and anxieties in order to gain our support <<cough>>StephenHarper<<cough>> is just trolling? They don’t care about us; they just want to keep us distracted and fighting amongst ourselves while they plow ahead with their own selfish agendas.